A game that both lives up to and exceeds the original's reputation. While I never played the PSP version of Crisis Core, you can absolutely feel the underlying foundation of a 2007 handheld action game here, with its small areas, overbearing mission structure, and stiff presentation. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy it, however, as its combat had enough juice to make it a fun experience, and its graphical overhaul and rerecorded voiceovers making it more in line with the Remake games did a lot of heavy lifting.

I wish I could say as much for the story, though, which straddles the line between necessary exploration of Zack's character and borderline fanfiction with its inclusion of characters like Angeal and Genesis. To its credit, Crisis Core still manages to foster an extremely likable character in Zack, whose personality and demeanor manage to shine brilliantly through all the insanity around him. That said, I couldn't help but feel like large portions of this game resembled an elongated Scoody-Doo episode, as you chase characters who pop in and out of the story around hallways for what feels like way too long. The narrative's saving grace is perhaps its strong ending, which (despite knowing the outcome) elicited some genuine emotion in me, something I was not expecting.

In a way, I'm glad a project like Crisis Core Reunion exists. I'm very much for this retrofitting of semi-recent classic games, in which they are resurrected with improved fidelity and minor adjustments to make them more playable to a modern audience, while not fundamentally altering the experience of the original. It allows you to appreciate - for better or worse - what made the initial release so fascinating, and challenges you to judge it on its own merits. Crisis Core Reunion thus stands as a neat time capsule of what the Final Fantasy VII brand was at the time - one that everyone can now experience.